Gaza Freedom March

Links:
Gaza Freedom March
Gaza Freedom March on Youtube

Human Voices: a wake up call to climate change, by Oxfam International

Music of Resistance: Finding dignity as an African immigrant in Europe

Links:

Music of Resistance, Al Jazeera English

UN Economic Crisis conference a 'missed opportunity' to help poor

The UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development was a missed opportunity to address the needs of poor countries, Oxfam said in a press-release on the last day of the conference.

This outcome document agreed by member states recognized poor country concerns by highlighting the urgency of the current crisis, the need for structural reforms, and the importance of aid and debt relief for poor countries. But it lacked in any specific new ambitious measures or proposals to help bail out the poor.

Bernice Romero, Oxfam Director of Advocacy and Campaigns, said: "A modest step forward was taken this week to give poor countries a voice in tackling the crisis, but too many rich countries remain opposed to UN involvement and the concrete steps proposed in the outcome document don’t go far enough.

“Member states have failed to respond to the challenge to protect poor people from the excesses of unregulated capitalism and the continuing food crisis.

"Up to 100 million people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year by the economic crisis. And while their leaders will be absent from next month's G8, this was a chance for them to have a real say in tackling the crisis. But ultimately this was a missed opportunity. Hopes that the conference would agree specific proposals to bail out the poor were ended by a combination of political wrangling and the refusal of many rich countries to accept the need for a central UN role in global economic reform."

Among the agreement’s few concrete measures is the decision to set up an ad hoc working group to follow up on the issues raised by the conference. “Whether this is a success or failure, will ultimately depend on whether or not member states turn the outcome document’s rhetoric into tangible solutions.”

Links:
UN Economic Crisis conference a 'missed opportunity' to help poor, Oxfam International
Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, UN

Mekong dolphins on the brink of extinction

According to a recent report by WWF, pollution in the Mekong River has driven the local population of Irrawaddy dolphins to the brink of extinction.

The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) population inhabits a 190km stretch of the Mekong River between Cambodia and Lao PDR. Since 2003, the population has suffered 88 deaths of which over 60 percent were calves under two weeks old. The latest population is estimated between 64 and 76 members.

“Necropsy analysis identified a bacterial disease as the cause of the calf deaths. This disease would not be fatal unless the dolphin’s immune systems were suppressed, as they were in these cases, by environmental contaminants,” said Dr Verné Dove, report author and veterinarian with WWF Cambodia.

Researchers found toxic levels of pesticides such as DDT and environmental contaminants such as PCBs during analysis of the dead dolphin calves. These pollutants may also pose a health risk to human populations living along the Mekong that consume the same fish and water as the dolphins.

“These pollutants are widely distributed in the environment and so the source of this pollution may involve several countries through which the Mekong River flows. WWF Cambodia is currently investigating the source of the environmental contaminants,” said Dr Dove.

High levels of mercury were also found in some of the dead dolphins. Mercury, suspected to be from gold mining activities, directly affects the immune system making the animals more susceptible to infectious disease.

“A trans-boundary preventative health programme is urgently needed to manage the disease affected animals in order to reduce the number of deaths each year,” said Seng Teak, Country Director of WWF Cambodia.

Limited genetic diversity due to inbreeding was another factor in the dolphin deaths.

“The Mekong River dolphins are isolated from other members of their species and they need our help. Science has shown that if the habitat of cetaceans is protected then populations can show remarkable resilience,” said Mr Teak.

The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2004.

In the meantime, I invite you to watch a rare footage of a few remaining Irrawaddy dolphins...



Links:
Mekong dolphins on the brink of extinction, WWF

Irrawaddy dolphin in the Mekong, WWF

Cambodian Mekong Dolphin Conservation Strategy, WWF

Closed Zone, Gaza 2009

The director of animation for "Waltz with Bashir", Yoni Goodman, created this animted film for the Human Rights NGO "Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement". While animation may seem an unusual medium for a human rights organization, the intention was to draw attention to the ongoing closure of the Gaza Strip and empathy for the 1.5 million human beings feeling its impact most acutely through the depiction of one individual chasing a dream and finding himself without recourse.

In the accompanying text, it says: "Despite declarations that it has "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the Strip’s overland border crossings, territorial waters, and air space. This includes substantial, albeit indirect, control of the Rafah Crossing.

During the past 18 months, Israel tightened its closure of Gaza, almost completely restricting the passage of goods and people both to and from the Strip.

These policies punish innocent civilians with the goal of exerting pressure on the Hamas government, violating the rights of 1.5 million people who seek only to live ordinary lives – to be reunited with family, to pursue higher education, to receive quality medical treatment, and to earn a living.

The effects of the closure were particularly harsh during the military operation of Dec. 2008 - Jan. 2009. For three weeks, Gaza residents had nowhere to flee to escape the bombing.

Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement calls on the State of Israel to fully open Gaza's crossings and to allow the real victims of the closure - 1.5 million human beings - the freedom of movement necessary to realize their dreams and aspirations."

Links:
Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Closed Zone

Escape capitalism

Heimlich Maneuver...

Cluster bombs: Hell from above

Links:
Cluster bombs: Hell from above, The Real News
Documents on Cluster Bombs, Human Rights Watch

Sustainable family farming can feed the world

The International Peasant Movement, La Via Campesina, has recently issued a press release entitled "A response to the Global Food Prices Crisis: Sustainable family farming can feed the world".

On this document they refer to the recent dramatic increase of staple food around the world, with consequent aggravating difficulties for the poorest communities.

"Over a year, wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago.

(...) Prices are increasing because part of production is now diverted into agrofuels, global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years due to the de-regulation of markets by the WTO, and extreme weather has effected crops in some exporting countries such as Australia. But prices also increase because financial companies speculate over people's food as they anticipate that agriculture prices will keep rising in the near future. Food production, processing and distribution falls increasingly under the grip of transnational companies monopolising the markets."

Via Campesina state that in order to protect livelihoods, jobs, people's health and the environment, food has to remain in the hands of small scale sustainable farmers, calling out for the principles of food sovereignty.

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and the right of their governments to define the food and agriculture policies of their countries, without damaging agriculture of other countries. It includes:

• "prioritizing local agricultural production in order to feed the people, access of peasants and landless people to land, water, seeds, and credit. Hence the need for land reforms, for fighting against GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), for free access to seeds, and for safeguarding water as a public good to be sustainably distributed;
• the right of farmers, peasants to produce food and the right of consumers to be able to decide what they consume, and how and by whom it is produced;
• the right of Countries to protect themselves from too low priced agricultural and food imports;
• agricultural prices linked to production costs : they can be achieved if the Countries or Unions of States are entitled to impose taxes on excessively cheap imports, if they commit themselves in favour of a sustainable farm production, and if they control production on the inner market so as to avoid structural surpluses;
• the populations taking part in the agricultural policy choices;
• the recognition of women farmers’ rights, who play a major role in agricultural production and in food."

This concept was developed by La Via Campesina and brought to the public debate during the World Food Summit in 1996. It represents an alternative to neoliberal policies, which prioritise international trade, instead of food for the people.

"International institutions such as IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank, and WTO (World Trade Organization) have implemented those policies dictated by the interests of large transnational companies and superpowers"...

Food Sovereignty: Now!

Links:
A response to the Global Food Prices Crisis, La Via Campesina
Food sovereignty, La Via Campesina
Can sustainable agriculture feed the world?, Food First
IPC Food Sovereignty
Nyéléni 2007, Forum pour la Souverainté Alimentaire

When I grow up

This is a video piece from "enoughsenough" campaigning against the expansion of Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest airports in Europe, raising the issue of our responsibility towards the future generations.

With the expansion of this airport it is expected that the number of flights using it will nearly double, with its consequent increase on greenhouse emissions.

Even though most governments now claim to be seriously concerned with Climate Change, promising changes in policies and signing international treaties, there is still no real sign of shaking the business-as-usual status quo...

Links:
Enoughsenough
Stop Heathrow Expansion Campaign
Stop Heathrow Expansion, Greenpeace UK

Stop the violence against Women!!

Today is the International Women's Day, a day dedicated to all Women in the world and celebrated since the early 1900s.

Yet, according to UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, "one in three women will suffer some form of violence in her lifetime, becoming part of an epidemic that devastates lives, fractures communities and stalls development."

This means over one billion people are victims of violence just because they were born a Woman!

The source of this global injustice is of course the problem of gender inequality, which is still so much embedded in our societies and should be eradicated once and for all.

Towards this end, there needs to be concerted actions on the advocacy end, for the establishment and compliment of adequate legislation that protect Women, as well as on the development end, with empowerment actions targeted at Women and support for Women organisations.

Initiatives such as the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, that support "innovative projects to prevent violence that are run by community, national and regional organizations" should be praised and multiplied.

Within the "Say not to violence" campaign, the reader can sign a petition demanding the end of this shameful human rights violation.

This post is dedicated to all the Women, mothers and sisters of our Planet.

Links:
International Women's Day 2008
Violence against women, UNIFEM
UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, UNIFEM
Say no to violence campaign, UNIFEM
Say no to violence petition, UNIFEM

Blackwater, modern day mercenaries

Here is a small video piece, done by Jeremy Scahill, a reporter of The Nation, on Blackwater activities in Iraq and elsewhere...

Links:
Blackwater, by Jeremy Scahill
Bush's Shadow Army, The Nation
Our Mercenaries in Iraq, Democracy Now!

EfficienCity

Greenpeace has taken another step in promoting a sustainable use of our natural resources in a world of ever-growing consumption.

In EfficienCity, a multimedia-packed interactive virtual town (with some good pioneering examples), they demonstrate how to lower greenhouse gas emissions and achieve more secure energy supply, with consequent cheaper electricity and heating bills.

In this virtual model they advocate the principle of decentralised energy, where small Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants can provide most of the energy needs of a town in an extremely efficient manner.

"It's the most efficient way possible to burn fuel because so little energy is lost as waste heat. (...) Because the heat needs to be captured and piped around the local district, CHP plants are usually sited in the towns and cities where the electricity and heat will be used. This makes it more efficient for electricity generation as well as heat; very little energy is lost in transmission.

CHP is also brilliant in the transition from a fossil-fuelled energy system to one based on cleaner, greener fuels like biogas and biomass. CHP plants can run on a variety of fuels, which means that the fuel mix can include fossil fuels like natural gas but, as more cleaner fuels like biogas become more available, they can switch to those."

Apart from the CHP plant, the decentralised energy system they propose also makes use of local renewable energy sources (such as solar, wind, tidal or wave power).

It is also a flexible and scalable system that can fit the local needs. This way, instead of depending on one single massive power plant, different infrastructures can have their own power sources, such as a small CHP or a single wind turbine, for example.

Such a system can improve energy security as when "using hundreds of small energy generators instead of a few major ones means there's a far lower risk of system failure; it's far less likely that several small plants will fail at the same time than that one big plant will."

Finally, efficiency means not only a great deal less resources consumed, with its positive impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, but also, at the individual level it means a great deal saved by every energy consumer, i.e. us, the citizen. In short, a better life quality by all standards.

So, the next step is to convince the big energy (oil, coal, nuclear, etc.) lobbies to give up their monopolies and everyone, the people, the planet and all other living beings, will thank them! Not an easy task to do, though...

Links:
EfficienCity, Greenpeace UK
All about EfficienCity, Greenpeace UK
Make your town climate-friendly, Greenpeace UK

Stamp Out Poverty campaign

Stamp Out Poverty is a network of more than 50 UK organisations, trade unions and faith groups, which campaigns for additional sources of finance to bridge the massive funding gap required to bring the world’s poorest people out of poverty.

"Without additional, sustainable and predictable finance, the Millennium Development Goals, agreed to at the United Nations in 2000 - which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – cannot be achieved."

Here is the Stamp Out Poverty Declaration:

• "We are committed to the implementation of additional sources of finance, specifically duties or levies, to generate reliable income streams for the provision of long term sustainable development; and to combat, where linked, causes of poverty such as economic and environmental harm to developing countries.
• In the light of the Millennium Development Goals – the historic accord in the year 2000 by all UN countries to halve world poverty by 2015 – there is an international agreement to improve the human condition worldwide through the provision of basic amenities such as clean water and essential healthcare and education.
• Current avenues of development assistance - traditional overseas aid, debt relief and improved terms of trade - are neither providing an urgent enough response to stop preventable disease and death, nor generating the necessary funds to pay for the Millennium Development Goals and bring sufficient numbers of people out of poverty.
• The first ‘development tax’, agreed in 2006, in the form of the Air Ticket Levy - whose funds provide treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – sets an important precedent for further progress in this field.
• We urge decision-makers, in the UK and internationally, to take all steps necessary for an early introduction of new and additional financing initiatives, such as a stamp duty on sterling currency transactions, with proceeds ring-fenced for sustainable international development objectives.
• We further urge decision-makers to ensure that such proceeds do not replace either existing international aid disbursements, agreed commitments to increase international aid or provision to cancel the debts of developing countries."

Another initiative within the philosophy of the Tobin taxes... Will it ever be a reality?

Links:
Stamp Out Poverty
Tobin Tax Initiative
The UN Millennium Development Goals, UN

Preserving paradise in Phoenix Islands

Kiribati has recently established the world's largest marine protected area - the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), in a total of 410,500-square-kilometer of one of the Earth's last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems.

After several years of joint scientific research between Kiribati and the New England Aquarium, with funding and technical assistance from Conservation International, PIPA was first created in March 2006. On the 30th of January 2008, Kiribati adopted formal regulations that more than doubled the original size of PIPA making it the largest marine protected area on Earth.

Russell A. Mittermeier, the President of Conservation International said: "the creation of this amazing marine protected area by a small island nation in the Pacific represents a commitment of historic proportions; and all of this by a country that is under serious threat from sea-level rise attributed to global warming. The Republic of Kiribati has now set a standard for other countries in the Pacific and elsewhere in the world. We are proud to be associated with this effort that helps the people of Kiribati, and we call on governments and private conservation groups everywhere to support Kiribati in its efforts and make similar commitments to protect their own natural systems."

Kiribati is working together with the Conservation International, the New England Aquarium and other partners to design "an endowment system that will cover the core recurring management costs of PIPA and compensate the government for the foregone commercial fishing license revenues. This plan allows for subsistence fishing by resident communities and other sustainable economic development in designated zones of the protected area."

"Keeping oceans and marine ecosystems intact and healthy allows them to better resist the impacts of climate change and continue their natural role of sequestering atmospheric carbon that causes global warming."

In 2007 Kiribati has applied to have the marine reserve listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its Outstanding Universal Value.

Te Mauri and Te Raoi (Good Health and Peace)!

Links:
Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA)
Phoenix Islands Movie, PIPA
World's largest marine protected area created in Pacific Ocean, Conservation International
Pheonix expedition reports, Primal Ocean Project, Global Marine Programs, New England Aquarium
Phoenix Islands World Heritage Area submission, UNESCO

Voices from all around the Globe

Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, which seeks to "aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore."

It is a co-operative effort of contributors from every continent and it's core values are expressed in a document called the "Global Voices Manifesto", drafted collectively by many bloggers around the world:

"We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak — and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech.

To that end, we seek to enable everyone who wants to speak to have the means to speak — and everyone who wants to hear that speech, the means to listen to it.

Thanks to new tools, speech need no longer be controlled by those who own the means of publishing and distribution, or by governments that would restrict thought and communication. Now, anyone can wield the power of the press. Everyone can tell their stories to the world.

We seek to build bridges across the gulfs that divide people, so as to understand each other more fully. We seek to work together more effectively, and act more powerfully.

We believe in the power of direct connection. The bond between individuals from different worlds is personal, political and powerful. We believe conversation across boundaries is essential to a future that is free, fair, prosperous and sustainable - for all citizens of this planet.

While we continue to work and speak as individuals, we also seek to identify and promote our shared interests and goals. We pledge to respect, assist, teach, learn from, and listen to one other.

We are Global Voices."

It aims at:

• amplifying the voices of bloggers and content creators often ignored by other media;
• helping to develop and refine tools and resources that encourage global dialogue and the freedom of online expression;
• advocating against censorship and promote the safety of bloggers who live under autocratic regimes;
• foster diversity and the emergence of new citizens’ voices through training and outreach.

Global Voices has an Advocacy program, which "seeks to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists throughout the developing world that is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online."

This network aims at raising awareness about online freedom of speech issues, share global tools and tactics with activists and bloggers facing similar situations in different places, and to produce educational guides about anonymous blogging, anti-censorship campaigns, and online organizing.

Global Voices also has an outreach initiative, called "Rising Voices", which "aims to extend the benefits and reach of citizen media by connecting online media activists around the world and supporting their best ideas."

Finally, it has the "Lingua" project, which "seeks to amplify Global Voices in languages other than English with the help of volunteer translators."

At the moment, Global Voices is being translated into Bangla, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Farsi, French, Portuguese and Spanish languages. The extension into Arabic, German, Hindi, Japanese and Malagasy languages is under way...

Good reading and keep informed!

Links:
Global Voices Online
Global Voices Lingua
Global Voices Advocacy
Rising Voices

Democracy charade

Human Rights Watch has recently published their annual World Report, with extensive reviews on human rights practices around the globe

On this issue, and in an essay called "Despots Masquerading as Democrats", Kenneth Roth, executive director of the organization, focuses on the breach and disrespect for Democracy and Human Rights by Autocratic regimes, which are legitimised and supported by Western governments (such as the ones of the US and the EU) because of their interests in "resources, commercial opportunities, and short-sighted visions of security."

According to the report, "democracy has become the sine qua non of legitimacy", which makes that "even overt dictators aspire to the status conferred by the democracy label". These rulers have therefore "mastered the art of democratic rhetoric that bears little relationship to their practice of governing. (...) Electoral fraud, political violence, press censorship, repression of civil society, even military rule have all been used to curtail the prospect that the proclaimed process of democratization might actually lead to a popular say in government."

Kenneth Roth attributes part of the reason why this is possible to the fact that, unlike international human rights law, “democracy” has no legally established definition. "There is no International Convention on Democracy, no widely ratified treaty affirming how a government must behave to earn the democracy label. The meaning of democracy lies too much in the eye of the beholder." This allows tyrants to be ("with a bit of maneuvering") labelled as "democrats", without having the need to comply with international human rights laws.

"The problem is compounded by inconsistency in promoting democracy—a long-standing problem. These days, for example, the US government’s vigorous criticism of democratic shortcomings tends to be reserved mainly for long-time adversaries or pariahs, such as Syria, Burma or Cuba. Washington has largely exempted such allies as Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, or Ethiopia, while its short-lived pressure on others, such as Egypt or Jordan, has waned. (...) This obvious double standard makes the promotion of democracy seem like an act of political convenience rather than a commitment of principle, weakening the pressure for real democratic change."

The report also promotes the recapture of the ideal of Democracy, central to the Human Rights cause, yet so susceptible of being manipulated. This thus requires " heightened attention to the clever subterfuges of its detractors."

"It is time to stop selling democracy on the cheap and to start substituting a broader and more meaningful vision of the concept that incorporates all human rights."

Links:
World Report 2008, Human Rights Watch
Despots Masquerading as Democrats, Human Rights Watch

The second largest forest...

This is a small piece made by Christian Parenti, correspondent of The Nation, about Congo's tropical forest and its current days of extirpation.



Links:
The fight to save Congo's forests, The Nation
Rainforest destruction in Africa, Greenpeace International
Internal Report slams World Bank for Congo deforestation, Making Waves Greenpeace International

Gandhi's wisdom

60 years after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and in a world of ever greater violence, it is worth reading some of the quotations of this wise man about peace and non-violence:

• "I object to violence because, when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

• "Science of war leads one to dictatorship pure and simple. Science of non-violence can alone lead one to pure democracy."

• "True democracy (...) can never come through untruthful and violent means, for the simple reason that the natural corollary to their use would be to remove all opposition through the suppression or extermination of the antagonists. That does not make for individual freedom. Individual freedom can have the fullest play only under a regime of unadulterated ahimsa (non-violence)."

• "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"

• "It is my firm conviction, that nothing enduring can be built upon violence."

• "Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds."

• "Love is the strongest force the world possesses and yet it is the humblest imaginable."

• "The first step in non-violence is that we cultivate in our daily life, as between ourselves, truthfulness, humility, tolerance and loving kindness."

Not surprisingly, these words remain as actual and as relevant as they can be in our present-day world of selfishness, intolerance and aggression...

Links:
Gandhi, Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal / Gujarat Vidyapith
GandhiServe Foundation
National Gandhi Museum